Compassion and Integrity

Growing Heart Farm is closed to the public for the season. We look forward to seeing you next year.

We have had a lot of concern for Chester, our pig, and we will post more about that in the future. In the meantime we are in active communication with a number of people who are engaged in misrepresenting our work on the farm. In the meantime we would like to share the below thought.

We are challenged everyday in how we live with integrity. As for the case with Chester, we ask, is it better to commit an act of violence with intention or to not know the violence that is being committed because of one’s actions?

One of the first lessons we learned on the farm was about killing. Every aspect of growing vegetables and land stewardship also involves death, killing and suffering. Killing can be as simple as neglect or as conscious as weeding and pest control. In the effort to live peacefully, sustainably and respectfully on the farm, we have been faced with killing more closely than ever before as a city dweller. There are traditions such as the Jains that go to extreme measures to avoid killing: filtering water for bacteria, not eating root vegetables to not kill the plant and sweeping before their steps to not step on insects. But still, even after all this extreme effort killing still takes place as life continues.

Our relationship to Chester and our land is conscious, thoughtful and respectful. Every day we learn how to walk with more integrity. We learn to balance real life off the grid sustainability with our heartfelt sensitivity to all sentient beings.